New Chevrolet Cruze review, test drive

To help improve fuel economy, the gearbox has been programmed to upshift at the earliest as well,so you sometimes get upshifts just when you don’t want them. Shifting the lever to ‘tiptronic’ mode makes it hang onto the selected ratio until you ask for a shift, but it’s still not engaging as, say, the twin-clutch unit in the Jetta and the Laura.

The Cruze auto is at its best when you’re cruising or when you’re in thick traffic. Fuel efficiency hasbeen one of the key priorities with the new powertrain and in this crucial area there is a distinct improvementover the previous model. The manual Cruze returned a decent 10.8kpl in the city and 15.7kpl on the highway as compared to the 10.3kpl and 14.8kpl for the old car. The automatic Cruze returned 9.8kpl and 15.3kpl for city and highway cycles respectively.